Local roping event dubbed success, looks to be bigger next year

Len HaywardMidland Reporter-Telegram

Published 5:34 pm, Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Photo: Photo Courtesy Chitin Flick

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Girls 9 and under champion Jordi Edens competes during last week's Tall City New Year's Calf Roping Blowout at the Horseshoe Arena. The event over New Year's weekend drew around 150 young competitors from various states. Photo courtesy of Chutin Flicks www.chutinflicks.com less

Girls 9 and under champion Jordi Edens competes during last week's Tall City New Year's Calf Roping Blowout at the Horseshoe Arena. The event over New Year's weekend drew around 150 young competitors from ... more

Girls 9 and under champion Jordi Edens competes during last week's Tall City New Year's Calf Roping Blowout at the Horseshoe Arena. The event over New Year's weekend drew around 150 young competitors from various states. Photo courtesy of Chutin Flicks www.chutinflicks.com less

Girls 9 and under champion Jordi Edens competes during last week's Tall City New Year's Calf Roping Blowout at the Horseshoe Arena. The event over New Year's weekend drew around 150 young competitors from ... more

The timeline to put together this past weekend’s Tall City New Year’s Calf Roping Blowout was pretty short, but it was an event organizers were more than willing to do in less than four months.

Two of the organizers, Shorty Shaw and E.P. Birkhead, have strong ties to roping, and putting together an event where young ropers could show their skills was something they’ve always wanted to do. This past weekend, they hoped the first event at the Horsehoe Arena will be the start of something big both for the rodeo community in West Texas and Midland itself.

“I love to do stuff for the kids, and we don’t have anything in Midland for that,” said Shaw, who has twin sons and another son who competes in roping events, or rodeo events for younger competitors. “You can play football or soccer, but nothing else that draws kids from all over. We’ve been talking about it for years and wondering, ‘Why do we not have anything here like this?’”

The event featured an open division that included both amateur and professional ropers on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 called Ultimate Calf Roping, but it was the two days on Dec. 29 and 30 where school-age competitors took center stage in the Shawn McMullan/Skipper Driver Memorial Junior Calf Roping event that organizers think will grow in the future.

Using mainly word of mouth, some advertising in rodeo publications and some old fashioned poster promotion, this past weekend’s event drew about 150 competitors ranging in age from as young as 6 to 19 from Texas, surrounding states and even as far as Colorado and Kansas.

Events such as the one that was in Midland for young rodeo competitors is common in more populated parts of Texas, but in West Texas, they are rare and even rarer in an indoor venue. But having the Horseshoe Arena provided the perfect venue for the event in the winter.

The drawing card for the event was not only a holiday date and a chance for competitors to win scholarship money and saddles, but also the fact that Midland’s Horseshoe Arena would be used.

“People did not know Midland had a facility like this, and they came in from all over,” Shaw said. “They didn’t know once they got here that they didn’t have to be outside all the time.”

The indoor venue helped draw competitors because weather wouldn’t be a factor in the competition, and organizers said seeing the venue helped them realize they will be back and will tell other people.

“That’s the only reason we came,” said multi-time professional rodeo roping champion Joe Beaver about the indoor facility. “Because if they wouldn’t have had (the Horseshoe), there was no way we would’ve taken the chance on the weather. We did not know it was as good a facility as it was.”

Beaver, who only competes in a handful rodeos, runs roping clinics across the world and brought some of his students with him to the event. He said he likely will be back next year.

That kind of endorsement will be big for the event as it moves forward. Shaw said they have their dates set for next year and are already drawing interest from more potential sponsors who provided both money and saddles for the winners than the more than 20 that participated this year.

Shaw said they would like to have more professionals compete in the future, but both he and Birkhead agreed that one of the primary focuses for the future will be to increase the scholarship money for the young competitors and keep giving young ropers a chance to compete.

“We were kind of concerned if we could get the cowboys to come because we are so far west,” Birkhead said. “But we talked to a lot of people, and they were just really pleased with it and said they will all be back next year and will bring somebody with them.

“Anytime you can get something for youth like that, I think it’s good.”